427 stories by "George Hall"
First seen in 1991, Elijah Moshinsky's production of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra has helped cement a once neglected masterpiece in the Royal Opera's
Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) deserves to be remembered for many things " in a year marking 100 years of (partial) women's suffrage, as
First seen in 2008, David Alden's hard-hitting staging of Donizetti's tragedy of forced marriage and its shocking aftermath returns for a second
The festival founded in a small town on the south-east coast of Ireland in 1951 has thrived on the most unlikely of
Major companies rarely glance at works by Saverio Mercadante, a prolific and admired older contemporary of Donizetti and Bellini who lived long
During his tenure Wexford's artistic director David Agler has made a feature of American operas, with somewhat mixed results. The latest is
Once again English Touring Opera places originality at the forefront of their programming. Only one of the three works in this triple
Over the years English Touring Opera has been loyal to Handel, staging several of his operas with the colourful period-instrument forces of
From a visual point of view, Gotterdammerung " the last segment of Wagner's Ring, revived for the final time in Keith Warner's
In the third part of Wagner's Ring, which concentrates on the adventures of young Siegfried, there remain production elements that puzzle in
First seen in 2004, Das Rheingold, the first instalment of Keith Warner's production of Wagner's Ring, is back as the prelude to
Puccini's Tosca is generally agreed to be the pre-eminent operatic thriller, but rarely does it pack such a sequence of visceral punches
As the Royal Opera House prepares to let the public into its redeveloped spaces, chief executive Alex Beard tells George Hall why
In 1939, Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears, dismayed at the increasingly fraught situation in Europe, joined their friend WH Auden
The fully equipped, state of the art Victorian Theatre at Alexandra Palace opened in 1875, but despite some glory periods the venue
Next spring, the British opera director Stephen Langridge will take up the position of artistic director of Glyndebourne " not only one
In 1890, impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, composer Arthur Sullivan and librettist WS Gilbert fell out over the costs of a carpet. It
Two works from the early years of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership are presented together and in contrasting manner. Festival founder Ian
It’s evidence of the ongoing popularity of Gilbert and Sullivan that this year alone the UK has seen three professional productions of
The summer festival at Bregenz keeps the small Austrian city on Lake Constance full and occupied for a month of activity. Chief
After the demise of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Ian Smith feared Gilbert and Sullivan's legacy might fade into obscurity, so he
Back in 1909, Lionel Monckton and Howard Talbot's 'fantastical musical play' The Arcadians was an enormous hit, running for 809 performances "
For its second summer offering Dorset Opera returns to the tried and tested with Puccini's classic " a work that never palls
Given Jules Massenet's unassailable position in the pantheon of 19th-century French opera composers, it seems inexplicable that such a major work as
Following its first appearance in 2015, Barrie Kosky's all-singing, all-dancing production of Handel's oratorio Saul is back for this festival revival. Whatever
